Dog Day Afternoon review

Jon Bernthal and Jessica Hecht in Dog Day Afternoon (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Perhaps this was intended to be some sort of immersive theater experience. Because after two hours and 15 minutes of this tepid, misguided stage adaptation of Dog Day Afternoon, I felt like I was being held hostage.

The Broadway version of the searing 1975 film about a bungled bank holdup that turns into a hostage situation has been reworked by Pulitizer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis; now, instead of being headlined by a young Al Pacino, it's a stage vehicle for TV star Jon Bernthal. In the process, the edgy intensity of the orginal has been sacrificed for comedy and '70s nostalgia, neither of which helps to bolster the story.

Bernthal makes an impressive Broadway debut as the troubled Sonny, smart enough to conceive of a plot to rob a Brooklyn bank, but not wise enough to successfully execute it. He certainly has a more significant role than Ebon Moss-Bachrach, another Broadway newbie, who plays Sonny's more dangerous, gun-toting parter in crime Sal.

The production's best performance comes from John Ortiz, a veteran of Guirgis' plays, which depict the struggles of people on the lower end of the economic spectrum. He's the "good cop," a police detective with the unfortunate name of Fucco, who tries to defuse the situation as amicably as possible. 

In the hands of Bernthal, Guirgis and director Rupert Goold, Sonny comes across as something of a wronged everyman, one whom even his hostages, like Jessica Hecht's head bank teller Colleen, warm to as the crisis wears on one sweltering August day. (Except for an occasional mention, the heat never seems to be an issue.) But I couldn't wait for Spencer Garrett's FBI agent to swoop in and rescue the people whose lives were endangered just because they were doing their jobs.

It's rare for a Broadway show that's not a musical to have a cast of 20 strong. Too bad they're not better utilized.